Download A Field Guide to Office Technology by Ed Sobey PDF

With greater than one hundred sixty entries detailing every thing from the junk buried in table drawers to that mysterious field blinking away within the coat closet, this sensible consultant navigates via glossy place of work expertise. each one access incorporates a useful description of a tool (what it truly is and the way it really works) in addition to details on who invented it and the way its layout has developed through the years. units are grouped based on their habitats—in the convention room, putting from the ceiling, or attached to a computer—to help in quickly and straightforward id. fixing place of work mysteries, comparable to why cell keypads have their ones within the top left nook whereas calculator keypads position those within the reduce left nook, this attention-grabbing source decodes the usually complicated technological landscapes of daily places of work.

With greater than a hundred and sixty entries detailing every little thing from the junk buried in table drawers to that mysterious field blinking away within the coat closet, this sensible advisor navigates via glossy place of work expertise. every one access encompasses a practical description of a tool (what it really is and the way it really works) in addition to details on who invented it and the way its layout has advanced through the years.

Together with his realizing eye and depraved pen, Michael Lewis unearths how the net increase has inspired alterations within the approach we are living, paintings, and imagine. in the course of one of many maximum prestige revolutions within the historical past of the area, the web has develop into a weapon within the palms of revolutionaries. outdated priesthoods are crumbling.

Users draw and write with dry erase markers, which have nonpermanent ink. The ease of writing and erasing facilitates idea generation. Whiteboards are also used for grocery shopping and to-do lists. U N I Q U E C H A R AC TE R I S T I C S Permanent markers look almost exactly like dry erase markers, so people often mistake one for the other. Permanent marker trails can be washed off a whiteboard, but it is a laborious rubbing task. qxd 7/20/07 3:30 PM Page 54 Motion Detector B E H AV I O R Senses someone or something moving around in the office after the alarms have been set.

Appliance plugs have two flat metal pins that run parallel to each other and fit into the hot and neutral slots of outlets. The third post on a plug is a round metal pin, slightly longer than the other two. This round connector provides a “ground” connection, and its length ensures that a circuit or appliance is grounded before it is energized with current. Grounding ensures that should the hot wire somehow come in contact with the case of the appliance, anyone touching the case won’t get shocked.

Electric, telephone, and data services usually are embedded in walls to keep them out of sight and protected from damage. In many offices, creative visions and wacky ideas are captured on whiteboards mounted on the walls. qxd 7/20/07 3:30 PM Page 38 Clock B E H AV I O R Keeps track of the time as it flies through the day. Provides a major point of focus for a certain percentage of workers. H A B I TAT High on the wall, usually in the center of the room. H O W I T WO R K S There are several ways to keep time, and three are commonly used in offices.